Buildings to be demolished

The site of the former Management building and adjacent church is fenced.

They're coming down.

Dalhousie’s Board of Governors approved the demolition of the former Faculty of Management building at its meeting on Tuesday. The six-storey building at Coburg Road and LeMarchant Street, along with the dilapidated church and the house at 6136 Coburg Road, will be torn down with the plan of building a new four-storey building in their place.

Plans to renovate the existing structure have been in the works since 2005. But when costs escalated as structural weaknesses were discovered, the University Capital Project Steering Committee called off renovations and recommended the development of a new, four-storey building instead.

The demolition, along with the relocation of the cell phone tower currently located on the building, is budgeted at up to $1.1 million and will proceed as soon as possible. The board also approved $450,000 to begin conceptual design work for the replacement structure.

The preliminary budget for the four-storey building is estimated at $25 million, a sum the university hopes to have half-funded before construction. The projected occupancy date for the building is September 2009, but the university will not determine tenancy until further assessment of spacing needs is completed.

In other board news, Dr. Alan Shaver, vice-president academic, presented the university’s fall enrolment numbers, with insight from Dalhousie Registrar Asa Kachan (See related Dal News story: First-year enrolment is up). Dr. Carl Breckenridge, vice-president research, provided the board with a report of the research funding news of the past year, highlighting the commercialization successes of Industry Liaison and Innovation and the funding of the Ocean Tracking Network.